The Eyes in her Dreams
by TacoKing23
Summary: Aeris wakes up from a horrific nightmare, haunted by the glowing green eyes of a monster. Tifa does her best to soothe the flower girl's fears. AU semi-fluff


**Same AU as A Gift for the Flower Girl, but a few years later. Around the time FF7 would have begun.**

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Aeris started awake violently, a strangled gasp catching in her throat. Her blanket clung to her bare skin as she sat up, cold sweat sticking her hair to her face. She struggled to catch her breath as the last remnants of her dream clung stubbornly to her mind, leaving her feeling deeply uneasy.

_Those eyes…_

The poor woman nearly jumped out of her skin when she felt a hand brush her hip.

"'s wrong?" asked a groggy voice from beside her.

Tracing the hand back to its source in the dim light, Aeris' gaze fell upon the barely-conscious form of Tifa, sharing her bed. The brawler's half-open eyes were focused on her, a sleepy expression of confusion and concern painting her features.

_Oh, no. I've gone and woken her up, too._

"It's nothing, Tifa," she replied quietly, "Just a bad dream."

The dark-haired woman frowned, thoroughly unconvinced. She sat up and scooted closer to her friend, letting the blanket fall out of the way so she could share her body heat with the shivering girl. With her arms wrapped firmly around Aeris, she repeated her question.

"Aeris, what's wrong?"

The older girl remained silent for a moment, gratefully soaking up the warmth from her lover's skin. Using the time to put her thoughts in order, and to try to untie the knot in her stomach, she took a deep breath before responding.

"It was a nightmare," she explained, a slight quiver in her voice, "A terrible, terrible nightmare."

"About what?" Tifa asked softly, resting her head on the other girl's shoulder.

Again the flower girl paused, enjoying the contact as she tried to find the words to describe the dream that haunted her.

"It was about… a green-eyed monster."

Tifa let out a single, soft laugh.

"You had a nightmare about jealousy?" she asked, amusement bleeding through the sleepiness in her voice.

"Not jealousy, you dork," Aeris replied a bit testily, "It was… I hesitate to call it a man, but it was shaped like one. He had glowing green eyes and long, silver hair."

The response quickly quelled the fighter's amusement. The abject fear in the flower girl's voice tugged at her heart, causing her to tighten her embrace slightly.

"What happened?"

The girl in her arms flinched at the soft question.

"I-I'm not really sure I should-"

"Aeris."

Aeris turned to face Tifa, gasping at the determination and concern in her crimson gaze.

"Aeris," she pleaded, "Sweetheart, please tell me about it. It'll be easier to deal with if you've got someone to share it with."

There was another moment of silence as Aeris considered what to do. As much as she didn't want to relive the nightmare, she wanted her lover to know about it. She had, after all, played a significant role in it.

"It… started in Midgar," she began hesitantly, "It was different; the city was completely owned by the Shinra Corporation, divided into the rich upper plates and the poor sectors below them, and the land in and around the city was dead because there were so many mako reactors around it. I had grown up in the slums there, for some reason. You still ran Seventh Heaven, but it was in the slums too. We met and became friends when you fell through the roof of the church where I grew flowers. Shinra was corrupt and in charge of more or less everything on the Planet, and you were in a resistance group against them. I joined your group and we went on an adventure to stop Shinra from basically sucking all the mako out of the Planet." She paused to take a deep, shuddering breath.

"But then _he_ turned up. The green-eyed… demon. He was a former general in Shinra's private army, but years earlier, he went mad and destroyed Nibelheim, where he supposedly died after killing everyone but you and Cloud. But he came back, Tifa, and he was so powerful."

Her breathing grew more erratic as the story continued. Tifa rubbed small, soothing circles on her back, trying to calm her down, but she only grew more tense.

"He wanted to kill the Planet, and everyone on it. We were the only ones who could stop him, Tifa; You and me, some of our friends, and some people I don't know. There was a dark man in a cape, and a cat riding a fat moogle. Cloud and Barret were there, and this talking fire-lion thing. Yuffie was the least stealthy ninja I've ever seen, and Cid was… well, Cid.

"We chased the demon across the Planet. Eventually, we discovered that he needed the Black Materia to complete his plan, so we tried to get it and keep it away from him. But he manipulated Cloud and took it from him."

By this point, tears were streaming down the girl's face.

"He summoned Meteor. He was going to win, Tifa, I had to do something. I took the White Materia to the City of the Ancients, and I prayed. I was the last of the Ancients, so it had to be me. I don't know what I was praying for, but I know that it would have saved everyone. But before I finished, the rest of you found me. And that wouldn't have been a problem, I think. But _he _came, too.

"He killed me, Tifa. He ran me through with that terrible sword he carried, and prevented me from finishing my prayer. It hurt so much, but not nearly as much as hearing your screams. I felt your pain more than I felt my own.

"You watched me die, and it broke you. For the rest of the journey, you were never the same. You and the group continued without me, still trying to stop him, but your heart wasn't in it anymore, and my heart broke to see it. You still fought, but you no longer cared."

The rest of the story was told through the girl's sobs, the horror of the events she had witnessed too much to cope with.

"Finally, you caught up to him and confronted him. You all fought, and it looked like there was still hope, but he was just too strong. He killed everyone. You were the last, and you were so angry, so ferocious. He smiled as he cut you down.

"Then, Meteor came. The monster's plan succeeded, and he killed the Planet, and rode it like an airship through space, to consume every other planet in his path. The last thing I saw was his glowing, evil eyes. And then I woke up."

Tifa didn't reply immediately. Like most dreams, there was a lot about this one that didn't make sense. As far as she knew, there was no such thing as black or white materia, let alone ones that were pivotal in the destruction or salvation of the world. She didn't understand the part about Ancients, or Aeris being one. The odd mix of friends and strangers confused her as well, especially since it sounded like they had banded together to fight Shinra, which, to her knowledge, was neither a global superpower, nor any more corrupt than any other moderately large power company. They did have a large presence in Midgar, but they hadn't killed the land around the city, nor was the city divided into the upper-crust elite and the slum-dwelling poor. And as far as their so-called, "private army," went, all they had was their security force, the Turks, an organization just large and skilled enough to prevent unauthorized visitors and corporate espionage.

In fact, there were only two things that made sense to her throughout the whole tale. First: Glowing-Eye Guy was bad. He was, quite likely, the most evil villain she had ever heard of, and even considering her sleep-hazed mind and the nonsensical version of the world he came from, Tifa found herself burning with rage at the thought of him hurting Aeris.

The second thing she understood was that the woman she loved was crying in her arms harder than Tifa had ever seen before. Kicking her sluggish brain into gear, the fighter pulled the blanket back up, wrapping them both in it, and proceeded to murmur comforting little things to the distraught flower girl. For several minutes, it appeared to have little or no effect, but slowly, Aeris quieted down. As her sobbing died out, Tifa wiped the remaining tears from her face, leaving the couple sitting together in quiet comfort. Before long, the two no longer felt like sitting up, and lay down together with Tifa using her friend's shoulder as a pillow.

"Tifa?" Aeris called after a few minutes.

"Hm?" the sleepy barmaid replied, pressing lazy little kisses wherever she could conveniently reach. Currently, that consisted of the flower girl's shoulder, upper arm, and armpit, the last of which kept causing ticklish giggles.

"I'm sorry."

Tifa cocked her head. "For what?"

"For waking you up."

The fighter puzzled about that for a moment before replying.

"Hmm… Nope."

Aeris' eyes widened at that, guilt eating at her. "But I woke you up, and I talked and cried for so long-"

She was interrupted by a head lazily bumping against her chin.

"Shuddup," Tifa demanded, "You have nothing to apologize for."

"But you'll be so tired in the morning-"

Again, she was cut off, this time by the fighter rolling on top of her and glaring intensely into her eyes.

"Aeris Gainsborough," Tifa growled, "You shut your goddamn beautiful mouth right now. You are _not_ allowed to feel guilty about this. Yes, you woke me up, but I would have you wake me up a thousand times over before I let you deal with something like this alone, even one single time. That's what I'm here for, love; to comfort you when you feel down, or afraid, or upset. If I have to sacrifice a couple hours of sleep once in a while to make sure you're happy, I'll gladly do so."

With that, she leaned down and pressed a surprisingly intense kiss to the flower girl's lips. For just a second, Aeris forgot that she had been upset in the first place, returning the kiss as well as she could. By the time it was over, she found herself struggling to catch her breath for the second time since waking up, but for a much more pleasant reason this time. She felt more than saw Tifa return to her side, the fighter wrapping one of those well-toned, delightfully strong arms around her torso and pulling her close.

"I love you, Aeris," the younger woman declared, "I'll always be here to chase your nightmares away. And," She gave that adorable smirk that Aeris loved so much, "I'll kick the crap out of any that don't run fast enough."

Aeris' surprised laughter rang out, bringing a smile to the sleepy brawler's face. The flower girl watched her drift back to sleep, wearing a smile of her own as she silently thanked Gaia for delivering this wonderful person to share her life with. _And to think, we might have missed out on all of this if she hadn't given me that flower five years ago._

She listened to the younger girl's steady breathing, absently running her hands along the arm that held her close. Before long, she too returned to sleep.

Not once did she see the cold glare of those glowing green eyes for the rest of that night. Instead, her dreams were filled with the warm gaze of the caring, powerful, amazing woman she loved.

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**So, obviously, Aeris' dream is basically the events of FF7, but wherein the group fails to stop Hell Bishie. Also, as stated, Tifa falls into the church instead of Cloud, and the girls fall in love there, which works out pretty poorly in that universe. An AU within an AU; weird. Also also, not sure why I decided some of their friends are strangers in this AU. Probably because I didn't expect to write a second story, and am using that as a contingency in case a third one happens. Emergency plot points? Possibly.**


End file.
